Psychology Taster Lecture

Dr. Gordon Wright

Dr. Gordon Wright

Lecturer in Deception, Mind-reading and People-Watching

Chief Mischief Officer - LittleMonkeyLab

I’m very sorry…

Cognition & Culture Theme

Deception

Little Monkey

Deception - Key Questions

  • Why do we lie?
  • Who lies? How much?
  • How do we do it?

Why we lie

Who lies and how often?

But is it so bad?

  • Well I argue not
  • We saw out little monkey tricking his co-monkeys out of a tasty bird’s egg
  • That’s right up there with animals that use tools

Dunbar’s Number

Health & Wellbeing Theme

Mindreading

Introducing Mind-space

  • Every person’s mind exists in a multidimensional space
  • It’s like the multiverse, but for brains!
  • Minds are mapped based on traits, abilities, and quirks
  • YOU are constantly navigating this mind-boggling terrain

The Power of Mind-space

  • Not just abstract theory - the key to unlocking human behavior!
  • Every time you:
    • Size someone up
    • Predict their actions
    • Wonder “What were they thinking?!”
  • You’re tapping into the awesome power of Mind-space!

For any AI geeks out there… 💛

  • It’s essentially the same idea as embeddings in vectorspace in LLMs

  • But we do it WAY better, and potentially faster!

What’s the point?

  • It’s not just really cool (it is!)
  • It could offer us new ways to understand variability in Social Cognitive ability
  • And understand some of the ‘magic’ abilities we share with cheeky monkeys

Life & Society Theme

People-watching

Systematic Observation in Natural Settings

  • Street Psychology
  • Observing behavior without interference
  • Identifying patterns and anomalies
  • Real-life Psychological Profiling
  • Inferring meaning and motive in everyday behaviour

I did some people-watching on the telly

BBC Horizon - A Week Without Lying

Goldsmiths Link

ExtraCurricular

Forensic Psychology Unit

Do you want to play?

Thank you

Any Questions?

But I think I forgot something…

Yes. The subject I mostly teach…

I bet no other Uni gave you a Research Methods Lecture at their open day!